The Foundation

“Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.” –Alexander Hamilton

Editorial Exegesis

“Following a pattern of making law by regulation and executive order, the Obama administration [last week] announced it will impose a version of the Dream (development, relief and education for alien minors) Act on America through administrative fiat. This is blatant political pandering in an election cycle at the expense of American citizens. On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Congress she has authority to halt deportation of illegal aliens not perceived to be a criminal threat as long as they meet certain criteria, such as attending school or having family in the military. The new rules would cover up to 300,000 illegal aliens. In 2010, the government deported 200,000 with no criminal records. Under the new rules, most would now likely be allowed to stay and apply for permits. Opposed by a majority of Americans and twice defeated in Congress, the federal Dream Act essentially grants amnesty to any illegal alien in America if they agree to enlist in the military or attend a U.S. college. It’s called a ‘path to citizenship,’ a path that leads right past the U.S. Border Patrol. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, a sponsor of the federal Dream Act, praised the DHS announcement. ‘These students are the future doctors, lawyers, teachers and maybe senators who will make America stronger,’ he said in a statement. So are the children of America’s jobless. … ‘If you look at immigrants from Mexico, they register 3-to-1 Democrat, so the Democratic Party is for easy citizenship and allowing them to vote,’ says Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. This is about making the Democratic Party, not America, strong.” –Investor’s Business Daily

Essential Liberty

“Our Founders warned us that all republics have eventually fallen into tyranny – the only difference being the relative timeline of each republic’s descent. … From the summer of 1787 when our Framers deliberated over their magnificent Constitution, we have recognized that the clear statement and equal application of the Law is among the most critical duties of any government. If we allow ourselves to lose this, we may as well be back in ancient Rome, subject to the whim of every petty tyrant in the taxing bureau or the zoning board. For it doesn’t matter whether the regulator’s foot is shod in a jack boot or a Roman sandal; if he can hold you down with that boot upon your neck, then we are no longer in the America that our Founding Fathers intended for us.” –columnist John F. Di Leo

Upright

“President Obama is chilling out at the beach while the country’s economic engine is headed for a deep freeze. … The fact is this guy is simply detached from normal Americans. Even when he wants to give the appearance of being with the common man in the hard-hit Midwest, the bus he took was a $1.1 million ultra-luxury model custom-built at taxpayer expense. Now he’s jetting off to take advantage of the kind of glamorous lifestyle otherwise only open to A-list celebrities and billionaires. Mr. Obama is holding off giving a big jobs speech until after his return. If he were serious about his own job, he’d return to the White House and give his TV address instead of sipping Prosecco in the sand with his pampered buddies.” –columnist Emily Miller

“Let us take these whiny excuses at face value and accept for the sake of argument that Obama’s Recovery Summer would now be going gangbusters had not the Libyan rebels seized Benghazi and sent the economy into a tailspin. Did no one in the smartest administration in history think this might be the time for the president to share in some of the ‘bad luck’ and forgo an ostentatious vacation in the exclusive playground of the rich? When you’re the presiding genius of the Brokest Nation in History, enjoying the lifestyle of the super-rich while allegedly in ‘public service’ sends a strikingly Latin American message.” –columnist Mark Steyn

“I seem to recall a presidential candidate who told his followers back in 2008 ‘we are five days away from completely transforming the United States of America.’ That, we were told, was the essence of ‘hope and change.’ More than a few Americans have figured out it was nothing more than nihilism with some media PR attached to it. … But I am sure of one thing: you can’t run a country when you’re attached to the idea that it is fundamentally flawed. That is the essence of nihilism. That nihilism is virtually indistinguishable from progressivism. –columnist Arnold Ahlert

"A man who misleads must choose his words carefully lest his real agenda be exposed. Obama’s public persona has to disguise his true feelings. Thus, his private persona is in constant conflict with the words he utters. That is why he hesitates. He is watching every word lest he slip and expose yet another dictatorial predilection. That is not stupidity; instead it indicates his conflicted emotions running headlong into themselves. He hopes to continue to fool the people. He lies and prevaricates and it is only when he is angry that you see the real Obama emerge. Then when he realizes that he may have gone too far, he removes himself from the fray. He blames others hoping that no one will actually catch on.” –columnist Eileen F. Toplansky

Insight

“A society that puts equality … ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.” –economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

“Private capitalism makes a steam engine; State capitalism makes pyramids.” –American author Frank Chodorov (1887-1966)

The Demo-gogues

We couldn’t have said it better: “What was remarkable was to see outside of Washington the enthusiasm, the energy, the hopefulness, the decency of the American people. And what I said to them is you deserve better. You deserve better than you’ve been getting out of Washington over the last two-and-a-half months – for that matter, for the last two-and-a-half years.” –Barack Obama at a New York fundraiser

Belly Laugh of the Week: “I make no apologies for being reasonable.” –Barack Obama in Iowa

Nice sentiment: “I’m not afraid of anybody. This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell.” –Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)

“Let us all remember who the real enemy is. The real enemy is the Tea Party. … The Tea Party holds the Congress hostage.” –Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL)

“We appreciate and welcome your concluding that the United States is such a safe haven because we appreciate your investment in U.S. treasuries. And very sincerely, I want to make clear that you have nothing to worry about in terms of their – their viability.” –Joe Biden to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao

Utilitarian reasoning: “Your policy has been one which I fully understand – I’m not second-guessing – of one child per family. The result [is] that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.” –Joe Biden, whose only argument against forced abortion is that there won’t be enough taxpayers

Dezinformatsia

The BIG Lie: “Nothing is unconstitutional until courts declare it to be so.” –an Associated Press “fact check” on Michele Bachmann’s charge that ObamaCare’s individual mandate is unconstitutional

Wrong diagnosis: “The grandees of the [Republican] party are once again trying to find some new candidates to get into the race. Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, anybody. And that tells me that the party, in basic terms of philosophy, doesn’t believe in science, doesn’t believe in government, at any level. Or is just a bunch of patriotic anarchists that in terms of orientation is in disarray.” –Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson

Dumb and dumber: “If the president thinks more should be done, if he thinks there should be more stimulus, why doesn’t he just go for broke? Why doesn’t he go out there and ask for it, make a case for it?” –NBC’s Samantha Guthrie (Um, he HAS gone for broke.)

Sometimes they get it right: “Cruising white Midwestern hamlets in his black bus, Obama tried to justify not calling lawmakers back to D.C. by saying they’d just continue to bicker. But what does he think they’ll do in September? The truth is, he doesn’t want them back in the capital any more than they want to be back. It would have screwed up his vacation and upset Michelle, who already feels trapped in the Washington bubble.” –New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd

Reading am hard: “Tonight is the measure of whether the country begins, in the state of Wisconsin, a national drive to push back or whether we have more to go to build a movement of resistance. But resist we much. We must and we will much … about … that … be committed.” –MSNBC’s newest host Al Sharpton having difficulty reading the teleprompter about Wisconsin’s recall elections

Newspulper Headlines:

Breaking News From 2008: “Narcissists Rise to the Top Because People Mistake Their Confidence and Authority for Leadership Qualities” –Daily Mail (London)

Out on a Limb: “Obama Bus Tour Has Campaign Overtones” –USA Today website

Amazing Advances in Nanotechnology: “Keith Olbermann’s Current TV Ratings Drop to New Low” –TheWrap.com

Because Sinatra Didn’t Have a French Accent: “Why Frogs Don’t Sing Like Sinatra” –The Wall Street Journal

Bottom Story of the Day: “President Obama: I Will Introduce Specific Plan in September to Boost Economy – and If Congress Doesn’t Act, We’ll Run Against Them” –ABCNews.com

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

Village Idiots

Incomprehensible metaphors: “Black voters gave the first votes and the most votes [to Obama] and now have the most pain. The highest infant mortality rate, the shortest life expectancy, least access to jobs and capital, so obviously it must be targeted for more than just for votes. If I can use the analogy of the great Titanic: There are those in the Tea Party that want to destroy the captain and preserve those on the deck and preserve those in the cabins but the water is gushing up the bottom and more and more people are falling in the sink.” –professional race hustler Jesse Jackson, who must be reading off Al Sharpton’s teleprompter

Non Compos Mentis: “Why did Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim psychiatrist at Ft. Hood, go on a shooting spree after being assigned to debrief soldiers who came back from the theatre of war and they’re telling him of the things that they did that were against their conscience now, and a Muslim psychiatrist is hearing them talking about the rape of Muslim women, the killing and sodomizing of families. He couldn’t take it anymore so he just shot up the soldiers. They want you to think that he’s a terrorist but he was debriefing terrorists and unfortunately it took his balance.” –Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, who must have been reading John Kerry’s 1971 Senate testimony accusing his fellow soldiers of war crimes

“[Obama’s foreign policy has] been really good as commander in chief and that’s not what the election is going to be fought on. It’s going to be fought on the economy. But, he’s getting our troops out of Iraq. They’ll be almost all gone by the end of this year, if not all of them. The Afghan war is being drawn down. Osama bin Laden is dead and Moammar Gadhafi is on his way out. Nobody’s had a foreign policy record like that since – I don’t know how far back you’d have to go. Not Ronald Reagan, not George W. Bush. Nobody. I don’t know, you’d have to go back to Harry Truman before – or Franklin Roosevelt before you get a record like that.” –former DNC chair Howard Dean

Short Cuts

“Some administration officials think the way to [create jobs] is to ape Jimmy Carter and create a new cabinet department: [The New York Times reports] ‘The administration may … merge the Department of Commerce, the Office of the United States Trade Representative and some economic divisions at the State Department into a new agency, administration officials said. Possible names include the Department of Jobs or the Department of Competitiveness.’ So let’s see if we have this straight: There’s already a Department of Labor, so we need a Department of Jobs? If we really need a new cabinet-level agency to deal with unemployment, why not at least have a little wit and call it the Department of Redundancy Department?” –Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto

“There is far too much emphasis on government as the doting, problem-solving parent. What made Western civilization rich and liberal was not just free-market capitalism and well-funded constitutional government, but the role of the family, community and church in reminding the emancipated individual of an affluent society that he should not always do what he was legally permitted to. … Our high-tech angry youth are deprived not just because their elders put at risk their future subsidies, but because they were not taught what real wealth is – and where and how it is obtained and should be used.” –historian Victor Davis Hanson

“India got a congratulatory note from the United States on the sixty-fifth anniversary of independence from Britain. It’s been a struggle. The country’s been torn by racial divisions and religious strife and civil war since British troops left, and so has India.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

“Obama said the housing market may not pick up again for another year or longer. On the bright side, President Obama now has nine people interested in his house.” –comedian Conan O'Brien

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
The Patriot Post Editorial Team